


Sweet Disaster

by lavenderfleetwood



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: Aged Up, College, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-07-21 02:17:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16150445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lavenderfleetwood/pseuds/lavenderfleetwood
Summary: Louise and Logan keep running into each other. It's one disaster after another, exactly as Louise likes it.





	1. Chapter 1

Some nights feel like every night  
This one feels brand new  
Only got bad things on my mind  
When I'm with you

-Sweet Disaster, DREAMERS

 

Louise was busy with her Monday routine. The restaurant was finally successful enough that Bob could afford to give the family every Monday off. Louise wasn’t sure what her parents got up to in the apartment all day, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

Louise was the kind of person that needs to be kept busy. She always took the summers off of school to help with the extra tourists. Louise was also of the opinion that summer classes were inhumane. Especially considering the unreliability of the the air conditioning at the local community college.

Louise _willingly_ got up early on Mondays. On this particular morning she decided to head to the corner cafe. She grabbed a bagel and coffee and ate a quick breakfast on the beach. Louise was pleased she’d managed to make it out before most of the tourists. It was promising to be a beautiful day.

With breakfast out of the way, Louise stopped by the public library to pick up a few more romance novels for the week. The trashier, the better. It was her little secret. Thankfully Tina couldn’t critique her reading material all the way from Boston.

Louise read for a while in a public park unkempt enough that most people avoided it. When she got too hungry to concentrate, she’d set off to find somewhere to eat lunch.

Louise never ate lunch at the same place twice, if she could help it. She had spent her childhood working in the family restaurant, and their circumstances did not mean many dinners out. Louise had also taken it upon herself to scope out what kind of competition her family was facing. She rated everything on a blog she was pretty sure no one read. But every time her siblings came home Louise knew exactly where to take them to escape their own restaurant.

Usually after lunch Louise would head back to the library and use their free wifi to write her blog post, but today she had been distracted. She had no idea the local pizza joint still owned the same pinball machine that she and Gene had managed to get a high score on almost a decade ago. According to the scrolling display at the top, FART was still in the top ten.

Louise was already out three dollars worth of quarters trying to beat the score. The victory snapchat to Gene would be more than worth it. Louise was so concentrated on the spinning metallic ball she hadn’t been paying any attention to the people coming and going around her.

Suddenly, strong hands gripped at her hips, pulling her back as someone tucked their face into her neck, kissing it briefly. Before Louise could object, a distantly familiar voice rumbled in her ear. “Hey, I thought you wouldn’t be here for another 10 minutes.”

Louise whipped her neck around and gaped at the man behind her. “Logan?! What the hell?!?”

Logan Berry sprang back and Louise laughed at his horror stricken face, although she was sure her expression matched his only a moment ago.

“You’re not Cynthia.” Logan’s eyes were bugging out in a way that Louise hadn’t seen in years. It awakened something in her. Something that instinctively said-- _give him hell_.

“Oh my god, _please_ tell me your girlfriend has the same name as your mom. That’s _beyond_ fucked up."

Logan stood there gaping, silently, with the same horrified look on his face. Louise wondered if she had finally broken him.

“Well,” Louise propped a hand on her hip and eyed him up and down dramatically, “she’s a lucky girl.” She winked at him. He sputtered something, but she didn’t give him time to finish the thought. Louise was out the door and halfway down the street before she had to stop to suck in a breath in between howls of laughter

\--

Louise catches glimpses of Logan and _Cynthia_ around the town a couple over the next few weeks.

One instance stood out in Louise’s memory. She was skating down the boardwalk with Rudy when she spotted the familiar sight of Logan lurking. It was almost as if she’d been transported directly back to middle school.

Logan was leaning against the side of a Kone Brothers smoking a cigarette, skateboard propped beside him, wearing his usual maroon t-shirt over gray undershirt. How could she pass up such a brilliant opportunity?

Louise motioned back towards the ice cream place, knowing Rudy was always up for dairy now that he’d finally outgrown his lactose intolerance. Louise ordered a large chocolate cone with extra strawberry sauce, easily the messiest she could get it. Louise hopped back on her board, and carefully navigated toward the small alleyway. She didn’t want to waste her weapon before its time, although she did take a big bite for. . . science.

Louise pretended to wobble on her board as she passed Logan. Engrossed in his phone he didn’t look up until it was too late. Louise “accidentally” shoved the mess of a dessert directly into his chest.

“Oh nooooo!” Louise gasped dramatically. “Oooh my gooood, I’m sooooo sorry! Gosh, I’m just - HA! I’m just _so_ clumsy on this thing.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me, Louise?!? What are you, twelve?” Louise had a comeback for that, she would swear up and down to whatever god you requested, but Logan started pulling his t-shirt off and the other shirt was riding up and she kind of just . . . forgot.

She was startled out of her trance by another exaggerated, “Oh my god!” _Cynthia_ , god that was never going to get old, was running down the alleyway towards them. "Logan, are you okay?”

Logan finished pulling his t-shirt off and glared at Louise before turning to his girlfriend. “I’m fine, but my favorite shirt is probably ruined.”

“I mean--it’s weird to wear two shirts anyway. Just throw it away if it’s ruined. We’re going to be late meeting Chad.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Logan started following his girlfriend out of the alley. He turned and lobbed the shirt, balled sauce side up, back at Louise. It landed at her feet. Louise didn’t even have any time to process what the hell had just happened to her before Rudy called down the alley, his own board under his arm, licking a large vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles.

“Was that Logan walking out of here? That girl with him looks just like you.”

Louise ran past Rudy, in the opposite direction of Logan. “Race you to Wonder Wharf!” She beat him easily. Rudy might have finally triumphed over dairy, but he never quite outgrew his asthma.

\--

Logan managed to avoid Louise for nearly the rest of the summer. Which suited Louise just fine. She felt as though ruining a perfectly good shirt more than compensated for a kiss that was definitely not haunting her dreams. Nightmares more like.

It was only a neck kiss. Whatever, it was nothing.

Her and Rudy used to get up to much worse when drunk in high school.

She finally caught up to Logan the last weekend before her classes started again. _Cynthia_ wasn’t with him this time. He was sitting exactly halfway down the the pier on Louise’s favorite sulking bench. He was sitting slouched, arms across his chest, and sunglasses on, despite the fact the sun had set almost an hour ago. Louise guessed he was using the bench for the same purpose.

Perfect time to bother him.

She flounced over and sat down next to him to wave her bag of popcorn under his nose. “Want some?”

“No.” He shoved it back towards her. “Knowing you, it’s laced with ghost peppers or LSD.”

“Both good ideas, but I prefer extra butter.” She shoved a handful in her mouth. "Where’s Cynthia?” she asked through obnoxious crunches. "Your girlfriend I mean, not your mother. I’m sure your mother is happily filing her talons in her evil lair.”

“ _Cindy_ has been fucking Chad, so I don’t really care where she is." Logan took off his sunglasses and glared at her, "Do you really need to be here right now? Don’t you have someone else to annoy?”

Louise shrugged. “Not since Gene moved out.” She shook the bag at him again, “I promise it’s just butter.”

Logan begrudgingly took a handful. Louise watched out of the corner of her eye as he ate it carefully, kernel by kernel. He took a couple more handfuls, but eventually Louise couldn’t stand the silence.

“Well--” She stood up and motioned back towards the brightly-lit and bustling boardwalk, “If you want to sit here like a sad sack of shit feeling sorry for yourself all night, that’s cool. I’m not about to stop you. But I’m gonna go play some skee-ball and probably win myself another one of those giant teddy bears.”

Logan made a dismissive gesture with his hand. Couldn’t even bother to use his words. Louise tutted at him disapprovingly, but left the bag of popcorn for him to finish.

She had been kicking ass at skee-ball for half an hour before Logan finally showed up. He looked surprised, like she didn’t always do exactly what she said she would. Louise won every single round they played, and heckled him every step of the way. Clearly Princeton did not have skee-ball. Their loss.


	2. Chapter 2

 

Louise hardly even thought about Logan after that night. Thank god. Some of those dreams were getting unnervingly obscene.

Community college, while not particularly difficult for Louise, was incredibly time consuming. Especially when combined with her more-than-full-time job at the family’s restaurant. Fall semester slipped by so quickly she almost forgot to study for finals. The holidays were a blur of the family traditions, old friends coming home from college, and busy nights at the restaurant (who knew eggnog milkshakes would be so popular). Spring semester flew by just as quickly as the one before. Louise heaved a sigh of relief when the days finally started getting longer and the tourists started trickling in.

Louise finished her Associate’s Degree in Business Management at the top of her class. Linda hooted and hollered while she walked across the stage. Bob cried. It was a whole thing.

In the fall she’d be heading off to the state school two towns away. That made this summer all the more precious to Louise. She never planned on getting a 4-year degree, least of all one that took her away from the restaurant, but the scholarship they offered her was too good to pass up. The college was practically paying  _ her _ to get a degree. Why not?

What Louise hadn’t expect was for her father to ruin her summer. Bob’s Burgers--finally achieving it’s true potential--now had an official, non-family-member, paid employee.

“Louise, you have to--go outside, or--something. I don’t know, but you can’t stay in here.”

“Dad! You can’t kick me out!” Louise glared at Zeke. This was all his fault. The easy-going guy shrugged in response. He was getting paid to be here, even if she didn’t like it.

“Why not? You always used to be so eager for a day off.” Bob slapped four new patties on the grill and continued working, despite the heated argument.

“When I was NINE! What am I supposed to do?! It’s Saturday. I work on Saturdays.”

“Go read those bad romance novels you bring home from the library or watch an anime.”

“DAD!”

“LIN, help me out here!”

“Ooooh if the girl wants to work--let her work! I don’t blame her--it’s Show Tunes Saturday, baby! I’m startin’ with Chicago and seeing where the spotlight takes me!  _ He had it comiiiiiin’ _ -"

“Never mind, apron’s all yours. Enjoy, Zeke.” Louise ran out the back before her mom could reel her in. Gene and Tina were around here somewhere. Maybe they’d let her be miserable with them instead, sans showtunes.

\--

Gene and Tina were more than happy to let Louise in on their plans for the day. A blowout beginning-of-the-summer house party at some rando’s parent’s house.

Louise had somehow convinced Rudy to crash the house party with her. Although, it wasn’t so much crashing as it was tagging along with Gene and Tina, who were actually invited. It was packed, spilling out onto the deck and into the backyard. Louise recognized almost everyone, except for some of the older party-goers. It seemed as though ten years of Wagstaff High School alumni were crammed into one party. 

Louise polished off her second beer and gladly abandoned the crush of people to go in search of a third. She managed to find another on the bottom of a cooler in the surprisingly empty kitchen. Most of the party was outside, watching Gene dominate at slap cup and enjoying the hot summer afternoon. 

Louise turned around and realized she was no longer alone. Logan was leaning against the counter, his eyes slightly closed as if he were particularly tired. Or just plain drunk. “Long time no see, Belcher.” He joked. 

“Logan.” Louise responded distractedly. She couldn’t seem to find a bottle opener, and her beer wasn’t a twist off.

“Are you even old enough to drink that?” Logan gestured at the still unopened beer with his own drink, sloshing it dangerously. 

“Don’t worry about it, bud,” she dismissed easily. “You need some water?”

“I’m not drunk,” Logan slurred. 

Louise finally spotted a bottle opener on the counter, behind Logan. “Not drunk, huh?” She smirked and sidled up to him, one hand on his waist, standing on her tiptoes, to whisper, “I guess I won’t be able to take advantage of you then,” in his ear. 

Logan leaned forward, but Louise was already dancing away, bottle opener in hand. 

He stared after her a while, thoughts spinning and twirling in a way only a drunk mind can do. Logan poured the rest of his drink down the drain and filled it to the brim with the cool water from the tap. 

Louise returned to the backyard just in time to catch Gene’s winning slap. She thought her absence hadn’t been noted, but later Rudy mentioned seeing Logan and Tina shot her sister a knowing look. Louise ignored it.

\--

Logan reappeared almost a week later. It could have happened under better circumstances. 

Louise had been watching the clouds build in the unusually dark summer sky for almost an hour before the torrential downpour started. The weatherman on the tv in the corner had warned about the storm that morning, so she wasn’t surprised. The wind kicked up and the lighting started flashing right about the time he predicted it would.

Logan nearly tripped through the glass door, desperate for shelter. His clothes clung to him and his hair dripped down his forehead in a way that Louise refused to acknowledge was dreamy. His eyes lit up when he realized Louise was behind the counter instead of her mother.

Logan squelched onto a stool and looked at Louise expectantly. “Well,” he drummed on the counter impatiently, “aren’t you going to give me a menu?”

Louise raised an eyebrow and pointed out the menu on the wall behind him. “We’ve never had a paper menu, moron. You should know that, you worked here.”

“Yeah--for like a day.” Logan rolled his eyes back at her, but was embarrassed. He really should have known that.

Louise ignored him for another ten minutes before he realizes she has no real intention of taking his order. Logan, in a pique of childishness that only Louise seemed to inspire, started balling up pieces of his napkin and flicking them in her direction.

Finally, Louise couldn’t avoid taking his order any longer. The power went out just as he opened his mouth.

For one pure moment in the eerie atmosphere of the afternoon storm they were both silent, eyes locked. Louise broke it by cackling at him. He tossed the rest of napkin at her and Linda bustled by, ordering Louise down to the basement for flashlights.

Louise and Logan awkwardly avoided eye contact for a while, even as the power came back on and he managed to place his order. Finally, the rain calmed down enough and Logan left, entirely forgetting about his lunch. 

Louise ran after him in the light sprinkles of the quickly fading storm. “HEY DUMBASS.” 

He whipped around, clearly furious, before realizing what she was shaking tauntingly at him.

“Thank you,” he muttered as he snatched the white paper bag from her.

Louise just winked in reply before flouncing back into the restaurant. 


	3. Chapter 3

It was the end of June and Louise had finally gotten the hang of Saturdays. Mondays were devoted to trashy romance novels and whatever bad anime Rudy was into that week. This left Saturdays for her restaurant reviews. Louise had even managed to gain a few readers.

She hated them.

Every other Saturday she’d try a new restaurant, but today was for her favorite place and her favorite dish--a truly superb Spaghetti alle Vongole from “the only Italian restaurant worth considering in this town,” Cotto e Mangiato. She savored the dredges of sauce, sopping it up with the in-house speciality, a crusty italian bread.

Had her dad ever considered using clams with a burger? Maybe if the patty was tuna instead of beef, but then--she knew where _that_ argument would go.

Louise was so distracted enjoying her meal she hadn’t noticed Logan until it was too late.

“Louise!” Funny. Logan almost sounded happy to see her. “I should have guessed I’d find you here.”

She stared at him, faintly registering his parents behind him. “Beg pardon?”

“I mean, your blog gave this place five stars. It’s the only one in the city with that honor.”

“My blog?” She said faintly, wondering if maybe the wine in the sauce hadn’t been cooked off properly. No--it’s always cooked perfectly. She hadn’t misheard him.

Logan looked confused. “Oh! Is it supposed to be anonymous? It just--it sounds so much like you.”

Louise sat there looking at him stupidly, still wondering what the hell was happening.

“Anyway...  I’m gonna--” He pointed to where his parents were sitting. Logan hesitated like he wanted to say something else, but turned and walked away.

Louise flagged her waitress down and left without even buying a canoli.

What the hell had just happened here? _Logan_ knows her so well he can identify her food blog by the style of the rants? That’s impossible… right?

 --

“Wow.” Tina said, from the other end of her beat up couch in her tiny studio. “So, how long have you been attracted to him?”

“Tina!” Louise protested. “Never!”

“Sure,” Her sister scoffed into her wine glass. “But you and I both know you only tease the guys you want to sleep with.”

“W-What! How was any of that teasing! That was bullying--pure and simple!”

Tina gave her a skeptical look. Louise pouted. She did not want to sleep with Logan. Nuh-uh. No way.

“You spent five minutes telling me about a two second glimpse of his abs.”

Louise blushed and refused to look at her. “Okay. Fine. So-- _hypothetically--_ if I did want to sleep with him, what am I supposed to do to make it go away?”

“Sleep with him.”

“Tina!!” Louise threw a horse covered throw pillow at her sister. “That’s the opposite of helpful!”

Tina shrugged. “You fixate. I don’t think you’re going to get over it without doing something about it. Besides, I’ve seen Logan. You could do a lot worse.”

“I knew I should have asked Gene.” Louise dramatically buried her face in another pillow.

\--

For once, summer seemed to be dragging by and Louise was relieved. She wasn’t ready to go off to college again. It was just going to be harder and farther away this time.

Even better still, Wonder Wharf had managed to throw together a pretty good Fourth of July celebration. Louise is a simple woman--easy to amuse. A holiday that revolves around explosions, alcohol, and burgers? She’s here for that.

The whole gang--Belcher kids + Rudy--was wandering around the boardwalk, dodging tourists and reconnecting with the few friends that still came home for the summer. They were giggly and drunk off the whiskey from Gene’s seemingly endless supply of flasks.

The usual breeze that rolled in off the ocean was nowhere to be found. Louise was getting hotter and less comfortable each minute she spent in the limpid air, but then she saw it--her savior. The humidity and smoke from children’s sparklers gave the Kone Brothers sign a heavenly halo.

Louise broke off from the group without a word. No one noticed, too enthralled with Ollie and Andy co-telling a story about their fraternity’s big end of semester party. She bought a chocolate ice cream with strawberry sauce and began digging into it immediately.

As she walked past the alley between Kone Brothers and the salt water taffy place she hears someone call her name. She looked up at her friends, but none of them were facing her. Was she drunker than she thought?

Louise shook her head and took another step, but she heard it again. Coming from the alley. She turned to see Logan wave from his position against the wall.

“So you actually like that syrupy strawberry shit?” He scoffed, his arms crossed as he eyed her cone skeptically.

Louise rolled her eyes and walked closer to wave her cone threateningly at him. “Don’t make me use this, buster.”

Logan laughed and before Louise had a chance to heckle him further he was leaning into her personal space and making it hard for her to focus on anything other than his aftershave. “Or are you just trying to get me to take off my shirt again?” He whispered in her ear. His hands were on her hips now, holding her steady. Louise tried not to be thankful for that, but her knees were feeling weak.

Without even thinking about it, Louise leaned up and kissed him. He must not have been expecting her to make the first move. It took him a second to respond, but then he reached up to cup her chin with one hand and kissed her so thoroughly she found it hard to believe he didn’t like the "syrupy strawberry shit" himself.

Louise felt like time had stopped. Like the whole universe had stopped to hold its breath until they were done. She felt her ice cream melting down her hand. She pulled away. Logan smirked at her, and then just… walked off? What the hell?

She suddenly realized her siblings were calling her name. She headed back onto the boardwalk and stumbled directly into their path.

“Louise!” Gene chided, “Where have you been? We’ve been worried sick.”

“She was gone for like, five minutes, Gene.” Tina winked at her behind his back.


End file.
